This is an RFI going out to the members here. I currently own a 21 SF that I use for general carry when I'm Stateside.

There has been a lot of talk here about the various self defense ammo types, HTX, frangible, and all the others.

Does anyone know of any side-by-side comparisons of the various types? Site pointers? Personal Experience? Personal preferences with explanations?

Thanks.

Different situations call for different ammunition. If you don't have a shotgun for home defense frangibles that cycle reliably are a good choice so the odds of having your bullets pass through your home into a nieghbors goes down. I use 5 rounds of Glasser Silvers in my home magazine for my G-33, followed by what I carry out and about for CCW. That being Cor-Bon 224gr JHP's. Since you have a .45 ACP I would just study up on that round.

I'm a big fan of Cor-Bon in anything, but there are a lot of good ammo manufactures out their. Hornady has their Critical defense line that seems very sound in using a soft polymer to keep the hollowpoint unclogged (main reason for JHP's to fail to expand, and cause the most damage)

Bonded seems to be the big thing now as well. instead of having a copper jacket placed on a lead bullet mechanicly, the copper is "bonded" through some process that keeps the bullet solid for penetration, yet seems to peel back like flower petals when a soft medium hits the hollow soft lead cavity in the nose of the bullet. Also since the copper outer covering is bonded to the lead atom by atom or molecule by molecule the bonded bullets hold more of their original mass or weight instead of shedding their copper jackets as in traditional JHP's (jacketed hollow points) after hitting tissue.

Cor-Bon is also working on a blended metal technology that compresses powdered metals of different kinds into a solid form. Once the bullet enters into tissue, the sudden deceleration causes the bullet to pretty much explode delivering all the energy into the target. I'm not sur if these are true fragnibles or not, but I think I'll be doing my own research into them soon. I think these are called DRT's

For practice I often use WWB (Winchester White Box) It's their generic line of "practice ammo" and you would prob. use .45 ACP 230gr FMJ's (Full Metal Jackets)

There really is no magic bullet, and because pistols are generally used for self defence all the "normal" rules of what should have happened after firing your weapon can fly right out the window. The human body is composed of many different consistancies of hard and softness and everything in-between along with curveture of bones and elastisity of skin, well lots of stuff can happen that goes beyond the expected or anticipated. If you are practicing with a pistol to save your life or someone elses someday, do just that. Practice a lot, and often. quarter sized groups may not always be the ideal, yet the tighter your groups at all distances will increase the odds of hitting what your aiming at.

Back to bullets and the Glock 21 you own. Some ammo feeds and can be the most accurate round ever fired in your friends gun, yet may be all over the place in yours. In my experience some pistols just prefer certain types of ammo, and that can be a trial to figure out what your G-21SF happens to like. All marksmenship training is good, yet if you can find a personal defense round that comes close to how your main training ammo runs in your gun that can be a plus as well. Some one can practice all the time with one weight of ammo like in the before mentioned WWB, and shoot like a dream, but then load his conealed carry weapon up with a different weight bullet and a lot more powerful powder charge and if he never practiced with it, might actually work against him if he were in a situation that might need him to shoot as accurately as when he trained with his practice ammo...just a thought.

Actually take everything I wrote with a grain of salt until you have a chance to study up and figure out what works best for you as well as what some of the other guys on this forum have to say. there are a lot of good informative folks that would like to help out in anyway possible. Best of luck.